Last week, the Carolina Panthers were a “clown show” according to Skip Bayless. This week, they’re a high school team.
The latest media personality to take a swing at the piñata this organization has become was former NFL punter Pat McAfee. On Monday’s episode of The Pat McAfee Show, the podcaster/wrestler/broadcaster/wrestling broadcaster took aim at whatever head coach Matt Rhule is trying to do under center.
And, quite frankly, can you blame him for it?
“I mean, they have no idea what’s going on,” McAfee said. “Everybody’s always said ‘They got it figured out down there in Carolina. It’s a good coaching hire.’ But they’re just rolling through players. Darnold threw like a 60, 70-yard completion in one of his first plays. He extended the play. Then they had Sam Darnold in for the red zone for a couple plays. He doesn’t do well. They put Cam [Newton] in, Cam gets sacked. It just feels like it’s all in disarray.”
He’s not wrong.
Sunday’s 32-6 drumming from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers saw the Panthers go back and forth at the quarterback position between Darnold and Newton. That silly game of hot potato, of course, produced some unsurprising and unflattering results—as the Carolina passers combined for 206 yards and a pick on 45 throws.
It’s almost as if Rhule is running a college team with this two-quarterback approach. But, sadly, they might not even deserve that level of credit.
“It didn’t look like Tampa was that worried about the game at all,” McAfee added. “And Tom [Brady] was pissed. Tommy’s yelling at teammates, yelling at coaches. There was ‘Hey, we’re playing playoff time. I understand this Carolina Panthers team is a high school football team [lookin’] right now. But we need to get this a little tightened up.'”
With a pair of games left on the 2021 slate, the Panthers will also have a chance to do a little tightening up themselves. That also, however, means they’ll have two more weeks to get swung on by whoever has the microphone next.
